


You Think This Story's Over (But It's Ready to Begin)

by faithfulpenelope



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 12:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8144606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithfulpenelope/pseuds/faithfulpenelope
Summary: When their second tour ends, they come back to Earth.





	

When their second tour ends, they come back to Earth.

Everyone assumes it’s McCoy that has brought them home, that Jim’s fulfilling his end of whatever bargain was struck to get Leonard up in space in the first place. They’re shocked to the last to find out it was Jim who suggested it, Jim who pushed it, and that Leonard had argued against it, not because he wants to spend any more time up there but because he isn’t sure Jim can’t not spend more time up there, up in the stars where he belongs. They go round and round, the same discussion, until one night Jim pulls him close and tells him _Bones, I’m ready_ , and Leonard can see in his eyes that it’s the truth.

Starfleet makes Kirk an admiral and McCoy a commander in a grand ceremony that has Leonard rolling his eyes so hard Kirk’s afraid they just might finally break. They make Spock an admiral too, as he sets off towards New Vulcan to continue his work there with Uhura – _Commander_ Uhura, that is, and head of the xeno-linguistics branch of the diplomatic corps - and their son. Chekov’s been gone since the end of their first tour – he’s a lieutenant commander now, in charge of engineering on the Reliant – but Scotty’s still taking care of their girl’s engines, and that makes it easier to see her go, especially when Sulu finally relinquishes his station at the conn to take his new place in the captain’s chair.

They offer McCoy a high-ranking position at Starfleet Medical, but even after all these years he can’t bear the thought of not treating patients, so he becomes the head of Emergency Services instead, and spends every morning taking patients in the local ERs. The bureaucrats chafe at his time out of office but the hospital staffs love it, love the support and the wisdom and the chance to work with the great Dr. McCoy, and there’s a sudden flood of medical cadets switching their specialty to emergency medicine. Leonard couldn’t care about the adoration but he loves guiding the next generation of doctors, and if one night, hidden in the dark, he admits to Jim that he actually misses the Medbay and the rush of it all, and that the ER almost gives him that same feeling, well, Jim may laugh to himself but he’s not going to tell.

They tell Kirk he can pretty much choose whatever position he wants, short of the Federation presidency, and McCoy teases him that if he really pushes, he could probably have that too. Jim doesn’t answer right away, takes some time to really think about it, because for the first time in fifteen years he’s got no idea what he’s going to do next. It takes him back to the last time he had no plans, back to Iowa, back to bumming around in a shitty bar with nowhere to go, except this time he’s not starting fights and drinking too much. This time he’s got his admiral’s stripes and his Enterprise family and most importantly, he’s got Bones, and it’s almost enough to make him call it a day and send in his retirement papers.

But once again, fate has different plans for Jim Kirk.

And, once again, it’s Chris Pike guiding Jim’s way.

The grief of Pike’s death is an ache that has dulled over the years but still beats in Jim’s chest, so when the current commandant of cadets announces his retirement, Jim takes notice. It’s been ten years since Pike’s gone, fifteen since he recruited Jim, but Pike’s ghost will always live there in that office at Academy headquarters, and when he thinks about taking over the position Jim feels a want and a sense of purpose he hasn’t felt for a long time. He’s hesitant as he pitches the idea to Leonard over dinner, but Bones just smiles wide and laughs, tells him he hasn’t heard a more perfect plan in quite some time, and damned if Pike wouldn’t have _loved_ the thought of Jim chasing wayward cadets the way Pike chased Jim. _Revenge_ , he tells Jim with a grin, _he’d see it as pure and righteous revenge_.

So Kirk becomes commandant of cadets, just in time for the new semester. For the first few weeks he can’t step outside without a rush of cadets besieging him, desperate for the truth about the adventures of Captain Kirk and the Enterprise. Jim tries to answer them all – _yes, we hid the Enterprise underwater, and yes, I defeated that Gorn in hand-to-hand combat, but no, I didn’t take out that entire squadron of Romulans in just a shuttlecraft and I definitely didn’t marry that Qu’arthian princess_ – until he finally gives up and holds a campus-wide assembly to explain it all at once in a grand story-telling session for the ages. It creates an uproar among the bureaucrats but satisfies the cadets enough that Kirk is able to actually do his job, recruiting new students and serving guidance and discipline to the current ones. His first time reprimanding a cadet, he almost loses it, almost starts laughing right in the kid’s face, because who the hell is he to tell the kid he’s done wrong, especially when Jim had done the same exact thing his second year. He makes it through but has to take a ten-minute break after to get the giggles out, and to call Bones and tell him, _hey, remember that time I almost got expelled for doing Nova Squadron tricks during Nav 201? Well, some kid just did it better._

By the time second semester rolls around, he’s ready to start acting as advisor to a select few cadets, and he chooses carefully, tries to think like Pike would have, and ends up with a motley crew of nine cadets that will take over the Federation if they don’t kill him first. His tenth pick though, that one’s easy, because he’s been waiting to take over as Demora Sulu’s advisor since she started at the Academy. She’s smart and tenacious and when Jim looks at her he sees the very best of Hikaru and Ben in a way that makes him marvel. He would have taken her on even if he and Bones hadn’t promised her fathers they’d look after her, but he still intends to keep that promise, even if it’s only so they don’t feel so guilty about leaving her alone on Earth as Ben serves as chief botanist on the Enterprise, finally sleeping in the same bed as his husband every night.

They fall into a rhythm, McCoy working the ERs and pissing off the bureaucrats while Kirk guides his cadets and, well, pisses off the bureaucrats – after all, there are some things that will _never_ change. They coordinate their travel schedules so Jim is out recruiting the same time Leonard’s off visiting struggling ERs, and the rest of the time they’re at home in San Francisco in the ridiculous apartment Jim got right after he become captain. He thought for sure he’d be selling it and finding a place back in Georgia, transporting to and from work every day, but Leonard scoffs at the idea. _I haven’t avoided the transporter all this time to just to start using it every day now,_ he tells Jim; besides, all that’s left in Georgia is memories, of his family and his marriage and his life before Starfleet and Jim, memories that, most of the time, doesn’t really seem worth remembering. Their living arrangements draw more than their fair share of gossipy whispers and snide comments but it’s not like they’re not used to that. They are, in the eyes of Starfleet, still _just friends_ , albeit very close ones, but they’ve been living that way for almost fifteen years and Jim doesn’t see the need to change it, even if there will always be a tiny part of him that longs to tell the whole world that Bones is _his_ , like the heroine of some old, outdated movie.

Then one day he comes home and Leonard, looking oddly jumpy, hands him a PADD for his signature. It’s a medical transfer form, officially removing Commander Doctor Leonard H. McCoy as Admiral James T. Kirk’s primary physician, and Jim’s heart drops as fast and as far as his jaw. Leonard almost trips over himself in his haste to explain that he’s not going anywhere, that he will _always_ be Jim’s doctor, but that as a matter of _official_ record, one of Leonard’s protégés from Starfleet Med will be Jim’s new doctor for reasons that would, momentarily, become abundantly clear.

Then Leonard drops to one knee, and, as Jim stands there dumb with shock, offers up a shiny silver ring.

His voice is deep and shaky as he tells him _I followed you to the stars, Jim, and then we followed each other home,_ and now that there was no chain of command to be worried about, he could finally ask him what he’s wanted to ask him for years now, namely, _Jim, darlin’, will you marry me?_ Jim never actually says yes, just pulls Bones up into a hug so tight he almost bruises his ribs, then slams his thumbprint down onto the PADD to signal his approval and drags Leonard down to the courthouse.

An hour later, they’re married.

An hour after that, the entire campus knows. They’d expected that would happen, but the speed is impressive nonetheless.

The bureaucrats are, predictably, _pissed_ , because McCoy has now all but admitted he’d been violating regulations by serving as primary doctor to a relative or loved one for about as long as he’d been in Starfleet, but the rest of the campus – the rest of _Starfleet_ – is almost as happy as Jim and Bones. Congratulations come in from around the galaxy, and they count no fewer than seven bets won by various former crew members regarding the nature and length of their relationship. By the time they fight through the crowds of well-wishers Monday morning, they have brand-new plaques outside their respective offices, ones that read _Admiral James T. Kirk-McCoy_ and _Doctor Leonard H. Kirk-McCoy, M.D., Ph.D_. Jim laughs, pleased as punch, but gets an earful from Leonard later on, not because they’re been replaced but _how come the Kirk comes first, huh?_ Kirk resists the urge to pull rank and pacifies him with the notion that they must have been going in alphabetical order, then kisses him so stupid he forgets all about it.

So they fall into a new rhythm, one that’s the same and yet fundamentally different. McCoy works the ERs and pisses off the bureaucrats while Kirk guides his cadets and pisses off the bureaucrats but now when they stop by the bar for dinner and to recount their days they hold hands on their way in, kiss as they wait for the tram to take them back to the apartment. Jim delights in forcing Leonard to attend official Starfleet events he wouldn’t normally have to attend in his role at Starfleet Medical by pulling the _but all the other spouses will be there, Bones_ card on the regular. In retaliation, Leonard makes his newest student doctor do Jim’s annual allergy testing – _I’m your husband now, darlin’, can’t be actin’ as your doctor anymore_ – and makes no effort to hide his amused grin as Jim yelps through the entire process, the young doctor apologizing feebly with every motion.

Most of the time, though, it’s just the two of them living as they always have, taking care of everyone around them and then coming home and taking care of each other.

So when they ask Leonard, as they always do, if he misses the ship and his staff and the little world that was his Medbay, he can tell them the truth, that the entirely of his world is right next to him, where he’s always been.

And when they ask Jim, as they inevitably do, if he misses the ship and his command and his life amongst the stars, he can tell them the truth, that he’s always had his guiding star right next to him, where he’ll always stay.


End file.
